Lord Campbell (Lives of the Chief Justices, vol. ii. p. 418) says that Lord Mansfield first established the grand doctrine that the air of England is too pure to be breathed by a slave. The words attributed to Lord Mansfield, however, are not found in his judgment. They are in Hargraves argument, May 14, 1772, where he speaks of England as a soil whose air is deemed too pure for slaves to breathe in.Lofft: Reports, p. 2. [back]